New motorway lay-by colours

DRIVERS on the M62 and M1 may start to notice that the motorway lay-bys are changing colour.

The enhanced emergency areas will be completed across Yorkshire soon, with Highways England currently carrying out work to paint the road surface in the refuge areas on the M1 between junction 39 for Denby Dale and junction 42 at the Lofthouse Interchange.

A number of lay-bys on the M62 will also be painted orange between junction 25 for Brighouse and junction 30 for Rothwell.

In total 56 emergency areas will be painted on the M62 and the M1, with work taking place overnight from Tuesday, October 1 onwards.

Once completed, the scheme will ensure that laybys will be spaced at a maximum distance of one mile apart.

The move has been made to prevent drivers from using the lay-bys unless there is an emergency.

New signs are being erected and a highlighted box in the middle of the lay-by will also be painted to make it clearer for drivers to see where the ideal stopping point is to aid recovery.

Highways England smart motorways programme sponsor Paul Unwin said: “We recognise that as well as being safe, drivers want to feel safe and we have and will continue to make some changes to the design of motorways.

“This includes making emergency areas more visible by making them bright orange which should also discourage drivers from using them in non-emergency situations.

“These redesigned emergency areas support our drive to improve awareness of smart motorway driving as part of our planned programme of work, including what to do in an emergency and when to use an emergency area.”